with the recent development of media and global market; imo small houses became more survivable.... when you had no internet, no cell phone, u only read about the prominent shows magazines wrote about... u could never hear about a small company on the other side of the world.... but now, u have complete coverage on every single house... HQs and full shows of every single collecion... bazillion of fashion sites, magazines, bloggers, tv stations, even celebrities promoting cheaply worldwide designer houses... no matter whether big or small...
that naturally makes unbelievably competitive environment (even though fashion was already super-rough before)... houses can produce artistic collections (they still have the designers and sources available) but when customers go to other brands because they are more 'everyday-life', more wearable, management is not happy and they replace these artistic designers with unimaginative commercial workers.... in the past... top houses had the name and their reputation was not shacky... they could experiment and be innovative and people acclaimed them properly.... now, u have so many houses and so many 'well-dressed' people that you really dunno what to wear so you end up with these people at the fashion show "i wanna see something i would look good in"... not those Galliano Mcqueen art creations...
as it was said... art turns into industry... moreover, since the crisis every house fights rampantly for EVERY customer... the more they fight, the more commercial and 'appealing' they are, the less artistic/amazing/fun they are.... its a business... fashion wall street... who will sell the most?

Customers aren't necessarily after a big circus performance of a fashion show like Victoria's Secret. Sure, it can be interesting and exciting but i'd say customers are more after the clothes and the new ideas rather than judging a collection by its show?
A designer doesn't have to put on a spectacular show to be considered as a great designer?
And as for McQueen, it's like the journalist is implying that McQueen was the only relevant one and that is just very ignorant.